A RABID DEVOTION

There is a zeal for God and country that ravages all compromisers - a devotion that becomes destructive, a patriotism that breeds fanaticism. Paul possessed a rabid loyalty to Judaism that drove him to zealously protect the traditions handed down from his forefathers (Gal. 1:13-14). His misplaced zeal justified his persecution of Christians as enemies of the Most Holy God and corruptors of his national traditions. There are few emotions more unholy than a holy zeal gone rabid.

Paul describes himself as a zealot (Gal. 1:14). He uses the noun "zealot" (ζηλωτὴς) not the noun "zeal" (ζῆλος). A zealot was a zealous person, of course, but the noun also described one of the four political parties in first century Judaism. The Sadducees, Pharisees, Essenes, and Zealots were known as the four philosophies or philosophical sects. A subset of the Pharisees, the zealots began under the leadership of Judas and Zaddok in revolt against the Roman census of Quirinius. They were passionate about freedom from Rome and that God alone was their master, so they believed that the census violated the Law of Moses. They possessed an indomitable will to suffer and fight for God and freedom believing that God would intervene miraculously to free His people if His people purified themselves for God. (TDNT, 2:884-888).

The zealots looked back to Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron as their hero. Phinehas drove a spear through the Israelite man and the Midianite woman in his tent to appease the wrath of God and stop the plague that had killed 24,000 Israelites (Num.25:1-15). It was the zealots who incited the rebellion against Rome that led to the destruction of Jerusalem. Some of the zealots were known as the Sicarii because they carried small swords to assassinate any who collaborated with Rome. They believed that the end would come and the Messiah would return after the nation suffered horrible woes intended to purify the people. For this reason, the most rabid zealots purified the temple during the siege of Jerusalem but also burned the supplies, including food, in the city to hasten the woes preceding the coming of Messiah. The Sicarii of Masada were the last to hold out against Rome, committing mass suicide rather than surrender to the enemy. (Emil Schurer, The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ, 2:598-606).

There is no evidence that Paul belonged to the zealots as a political party, but his zeal put many zealots to shame. He describes himself as being an "extreme" zealot for his ancestral traditions (Gal. 1:14). The adjective "ancestral" (πατρικῶν) means paternal (M&M, Vocabulary of the Greek NT, 499). Paul's zeal was for his national heritage. The word "extremely" (περισσοτέρως) means to be zealous to a much higher degree than others (BDAG, 651).  Paul claims that he was progressing in Judaism beyond his contemporaries. The verb "progressing" (προέκοπτον) is in the imperfect tense, indicating ongoing progress. It means to cut forward or blaze a path, and the preposition "beyond" (ὑπὲρ) means to excel or surpass (R&R, Linguistic Key, 501). Paul forged ahead of the most zealous zealots in his passion for God and country. His passion led him to persecute (ἐδίωκον) Christians. The verb is also in the imperfect tense indicating ongoing persecution and means to hunt them down. Paul tried to destroy (ἐπόρθουν) the church of God. The verb was used to describe soldiers who ravaged a city (R&R, 501). Paul rabidly defended his heritage until the gospel radically realigned his values.

Beware of a zeal for God that is not according to knowledge (Rom. 10:2). God saved Paul from the zealot's zeal and transformed his devotion from nationalism to evangelism, from the kingdom of man to the kingdom of God. The Christians he once persecuted, he now embraced. The Gentiles he once scorned, he now loved. The pagans he once avoided, he now evangelized. The gospel of grace changes everything about life!

A BRITTLE FAITH BUT A SURE GOSPEL

"For I know in what hours of darkness I sometimes wrestle. I know how often I suddenly lose the beams of the gospel, and grace, as being shadowed from me with thick and dark clouds. ... Therefore, in respect of us the article of justification by faith in Christ alone, is very brittle, because we are brittle" (Martin Luther, Galatians, 31).

Luther pointed to what Paul wrote in Galatians 1:11-12 as vital to the Christian faith. The doctrine of justification by faith is brittle if it depends on us, but the gospel is sure because it depends on Him! Paul wrote: "the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ."

These two verses give us clues to the structural frame for the letter to the Galatians. Paul responds to two significant criticisms from his enemies, namely that his gospel was "according to man" (κατὰ ἄνθρωπον) and received "from man" (παρὰ ἀνθρώπου) both of which Paul refutes in this letter. The gospel does not reflect human norms, and the gospel does not come from human origins. Paul's answers to his critics in the rest of the letter form a chiasm since he responds in reverse order. He shows that his gospel is not from man (παρὰ ἀνθρώπου) in Galatians 1:13-2:21. Then he argues that his gospel is not according to man (κατὰ ἄνθρωπον) in Galatians 3:1-6:10 (Blass/Debrunner, Grammar, 252).

First, Paul argues that the gospel did not come from human origins. The preposition παρὰ with the genitive case in classical Greek points to a person and indicates that something proceeded literally from the side of the person. The source originates and directs the information (BDAG, 609). When used with verbs implying transmission, the preposition marks the object as the source. Sometimes the object is the intermediate source of the transmission, but often the preposition is used to indicate the ultimate source. Here in this context, Paul is clearly saying that man is not the ultimate source of the gospel because he received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ (Burton, Galatians, 39-40).

Paul neither received (παρέλαβον) the gospel from men, nor was he taught (ἐδιδάχθην) the gospel by men. There is probably not a significant distinction between the two verbs in this context. The second is used to reinforce and clarify the point of the first verb (Bruce, Galatians, 89). Humans did not transmit the gospel to Paul. How did Paul receive the gospel? He received it "through (δι') a revelation." The preposition διὰ identifies the agent, so the gospel was transmitted by the agency of revelation (Robertson, Grammar, 582). The word "revelation" (ἀποκαλύψεως) means an uncovering or laying bare of something previously hidden (Burton, Galatians, 433). The gospel came to Paul through the agency of revelation.

Is Jesus Christ the object of the revelation or the subject who revealed the gospel? If Jesus Christ (᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ) is a subjective genitive, then He is the one who revealed the gospel to Paul. If Jesus Christ is an objective genitive, then He is the one whom God revealed to Paul. In favor of the former, Jesus Christ as the source of the gospel expresses Paul's point well (Burton, Galatians, 41-42). However, the latter makes sense when looking at where Paul goes in the next verses. God revealed Jesus to Paul in the incredible Damascus encounter. Paul stresses this latter point when he writes, "God was pleased to reveal (ἀποκαλῦψαι) His Son to me" (Gal. 1:15-16). I take it that Christ is the object of God's revelation which makes Him the essence of the gospel. "To preach the gospel (v.11) was to preach Christ (v.16)" (Bruce Galatians, 89). Therefore, Paul lays out his autobiography in Galatians 1:13-2:14 to explain the divine origin of the gospel that he preached and the centrality of Christ to the gospel.

Second, Paul argues that the gospel does not reflect human norms or standards (BDAG, 407). The preposition κατὰ means according to or after the manner of mankind. The noun ἄνθρωπον lacks the definite article so it should be understood qualitatively. Paul was not talking about an individual man but about mankind. The expression, "according to man" (κατὰ ἄνθρωπον), was used by classical Greek writers to mean from a human point of view or according to human thinking (Burton, Galatians, 37). The gospel does not conform to the norms of human thought. It is counter-cultural. The gospel of Christ invades the human world system with a radical upending of human norms and standards.

Paul develops his explanation of the power of the transforming gospel in Galatians 3:1-6:10. The gospel makes humans think differently about the law and righteousness (3:1-29), who are the true children of God and how we become his sons (4:1-31), living by the energy of the Spirit versus living by the passions of the flesh (5:1-26), forgiving and caring for one another versus self-love (6:1-10). The gospel radically transforms all human norms and standards because the gospel does not come from human thinking. The gospel is big because it motivates a new way of living. Our lives as Christians are founded on the sure gospel of Jesus Christ.

Here, then, is the crux of the matter: because the gospel is the revelation about Jesus Christ and what He has done for me, my justification does not depend upon my brittle faith!